A Simple Solution for a Big Problem

Freedom and Creativity

Views and Words - Dr K S Radhakrishnan 

A very false concept on creativity is that it amounts to anarchy. Take for ex. music; anarchical expression of various sound waves can never be able to create music. Music can be created only if the musician regulates his vocal cord to produce a specific range of sound with all required features. A musician also needs consistent practice for effective utilization of all supporting equipments. Like this, a poet has to make rigorous practices to make his selections proper. After all, poetry is diction; but how to use the words appropriately is the question. Words can be connected properly in a poetic manner only if one is able to make discrimination between what the poet needs in a particular poetic context and what he does not need. So the ‘need’ and ‘does not need’ are to be assessed properly, where one has to exercise one’s power to regulate his capacity to select words. Words are flowing like a river but we have to get what we need. This proper form of selection is to be done by proper regulation. This is applicable to the administration also. A good administrator is the one who is able to regulate himself as well as his establishment. Administration is nothing but an act of exercising freedom, in the sense that he regulates himself and the whole establishment. Regulation can never be confined to the financial matters alone, even though every finance manager gives the warning that one has to regulate one’s expenditure. If one is not able to regulate expenditure, such an institution will end up in bankruptcy because unregulated spending of money will definitely take an institution to financial crisis. So, regulation is essential even for a good administrator. One cannot become a management expert without having regulation. 

These rules of regulation are not restricted to either a good politician or a good academician. Wherever we exercise our free will, there we need regulation. There cannot be any creation or creative activity without having proper regulation. This universal theory can no way be ignored by any person whatever be his area of activity, irrespective of a laymen and an expert. Take the case of a lady who is cooking. Cooking is an activity which needs a high level of attention and concentration. In every minute segment of the process the one who is engaged in cooking has to exercise accurate self-regulation mechanism. She should invariably know the proportion of all ingredients used in a dish – from salt to spices. In short, wherever we are placing ourselves, we essentially need self-regulation. My point is that self-regulation is not merely the concern of Rishis and sages alone but of every person who is engaged in any sort of activity. The moment one wants to transform ones activity as an act of creation, such an act can never be able to ignore the role of self regulation. At the very beginning of this discussion itself, I had made it clear that freedom is self-regulation. Advaita Vedanta clearly gives the idea that any person in any field can be creative only when he exercises his free will with a regulative mechanism that has been designed by the person himself. 

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